Cultural aspects of mood disorders

Cultures invariably affect the way emotional distress and psychiatric disorders present to the clinicians. Mood is a subjective feeling and its expressions are highly likely to be influenced by the way the culture expects the individual to behave and express this. In mood disorders, although hypomanic symptoms may be easily identified, the symptoms of depression may be more difficult because these can be seen as both a clinical syndrome and an emotional expression. Here, some epidemiological studies are described with suggestions for managing affective disorders with patients from different cultures.